How to Know If You Are Having a Mental Breakdown

One of the first characteristics of having a mental breakdown is that you start getting an uneasy feeling or inappropriate emotional response to areas and events in your life that are usually quite stable. It is at this point that we could usually fix and get rid of or correct problem habits or attitudes and behaviors. But most people do not heed the warning signs so far in advance and we tend to rationalize any signals that something is not quite right in our worlds. This is usually when you can look back and say "aha" I remember that is when I started over-doing things as in eating, working, drinking alcohol, exercising, or anything for that matter. Or we may be under-doing also, either way we are not in our usual balance.

So we as human beings wait until we are truly getting a "red alert" message from our bodies, brains, environments and emotions; that we are exhausted, in a fog, cannot concentrate, are angry most of the time, or simply cannot function as we once had. Every person is different and sometimes the message that something is not working in our brains does not come directly from us but from a spouse or family member or a boss or health care professional. This is usually when we start to acknowledge that our mental system is in need of some rest, repair, attention and general maintenance. We may need to see a physician as it may be a chemical imbalance or talk to a therapist to find out what is happening to us.

Throughout each persons life; we change, sometimes what bothered us just last month doesn't even phase us this time around. And at other times the least significant thing can send us spiraling into a severe depression or panic attack. Each time this happens we need to address where we are at on our life's journey and our emotional pathways and then we can make sure our decisions and actions are healthy, proactive, constructive, etc. so that we can nip any over reactive or under reactive negative behaviors and patterns out of our lives before they wind up overloading us.

It is a good idea to keep a journal or even just be mentally and physically aware of all of your own little shifts and patterns in your lives and also to get regular mental health check ups so that when the imbalance presents itself it is easier to conquer when it is still a small habit or behavior that can be changed easily.